I have had the opportunity to see original prints of Katsushika Hokusai’s iconic work The Great Wave Off Kanagawa at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Now, the Art Institute of Chicago, which has three copies in its collection, has removed one of them from storage and it is back on display in the museum until Jan 6, 2025.
Here’s a video of the print being removed from storage, as well as a brief comparison of their three prints:
Warning: this film features rapidly flashing images that can be distressing to photosensitive viewers.
“The UK filmmaker Daniel McKee is known for videos in which he arranges items from around the world into vibrant, flipbook-style animations. In his latest work, he draws from signs around the world to create an entertaining chronicle of alerts, instructions, bans and handy information. Pairing the work with a propulsive electronic score, McKee creates an entertaining semiotic study of the information societies try to communicate in a flash, and the language of imagery they’ve created to convey them.”
In 1952, when the quintessential Beat writer Jack Kerouac began marketing his second novel On the Road to publishing houses, he designed his own book cover. He sent it to a potential publisher A.A. Wyn, with a little note typed at the very top:
Dear Mr. Wyn:
I submit this as my idea of an appealing commercial cover expressive of the book. The cover for “The Town and the City” was as dull as the title and the photo backflap. Wilbur Pippin’s photo of me is the perfect On the Road one … it will look like the face of the figure below.
J.K.
The publisher turned down the book, and it didn’t get published until 1957. It would, however, become a bestseller and be published with many different covers through the years. They’re all on display here. I still remember reading a battered Signet paperback edition of the classic when I was in high school. Not exciting cover art, but still better than Jack’s.
A few years back, I was taking a short hike around a glacial lake below the Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska and nearly walked up on a bear. Fortunately after seeing the fresh bear tracks, I reversed my course and found an alternate trail. At the time, I could have used the sage advice from the wildlife tour company Scenic Bear Viewing in the nerve wracking video below.
When confronted with danger, we often face a choice between fight or flight. For many, the instinctive reaction to a charging bear is to run. However, this response can be more dangerous than you might think. A wildlife tour company, Scenic Bear Viewing in Homer, Alaska, recently shared a video
revealing that it’s better to stand your ground when faced with a charging bear.
Coincidently, my hiking trail was actually in the low growth pine forest at the bottom of the frame in the purloined photo above.
Have you ever wondered how those ubiquitous little black Moleskine notebooks got to be so popular ? Are you one of the many millions of devotees who carry one in your pocket or backpack at all times ? Well click on this link and be enlightened .
I am endlessly fascinated by the mysteries of Stonehenge. A new scientific analysis suggests that the Altar Stone at Stonehenge (weighing several tons) was transported to the site from more than 450 miles away in Scotland (likely by sea). Check out the video below on the project.
At Colossal: Across rural Europe, Ashley Suszczynski photographs remarkable and ancient masked traditions.
According to the American Hotel & Lodging Association, theft costs hotel brands millions of dollars every year. It’s gotten to the point where hotels sometimes use anti-theft devices to catch patrons who have stolen their items.
In late 2019, Wellness Heaven, a Germany-based luxury and spa hotel guide, posted the results of a survey of what was most stolen from 4- and 5-star hotel rooms. The survey also included the differences between what people from different countries tended to steal from said rooms.
JF Books was teeming with books — and customers — when it opened its doors in Washington’s Dupont Circle neighborhood. In the storefront, the shop’s name is displayed in English and Mandarin in neon green lights. The sporadic rain was perhaps fitting considering the bookstore’s namesake “jifeng” means “monsoon” in Mandarin.
The bookstore is located next to Kramers, an indie bookstore that has been a Washington fixture for decades. Yu Miao, who runs JF Books, says he hopes his bookstore becomes an institution for the local community, too.
“I hope the bookstore can establish a connection between people in the Chinese community, and this connection could be established through knowledge,” Yu told VOA shortly before the shop opened for business. “Also, I hope the bookstore’s function can go beyond the Chinese community. It can also contribute to the local community.”
The shop sells Chinese-language books from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, in addition to a selection of English-language books. It will also regularly host speakers for events.
Founded in Shanghai in 1997 as Jifeng Bookstore, the shop ran into trouble in 2017 when its landlord said the lease couldn’t be extended. The bookstore looked for a new location, but the prospective landlords at each potential site received warnings or notifications from the government.
Jifeng Bookstore is one of several independent bookstores that Beijing has forced to close in recent years.
“All the months are crude experiments, out of which the perfect September is made.”
-Virginia Woolf
Who knew that Ernest Hemingway traveled with a pricey Louis Vuitton Writer’s Trunk.
I was lucky enough to spent quite a bit of time in the Netherlands and I constantly marveled at how they managed to engineer a nation with so much of the country below sea level. Many of their farmers needed a way to leap waterways to reach their various plots of land. Over time this evolved into a competitive sport, known as fierljeppen (“far leaping”) in which contestants sprint to the water, seize a 10-meter pole, and climb it as it lurches forward over the channel. The winner is the one who lands farthest from the starting point in the sand bed on the opposite side.
The current record holder is Jaco de Groot of Utrecht, who leapt, clambered, swayed, and fell 22.21 meters in 2017.
The historic southern Sicilian city of Agrigento is preparing to be Italy’s 2025 Capital of Culture and has taken a controversial stance against its infamous Mafia past. In a bid to reclaim its cultural identity, the city has banned the sale of Mafia-themed souvenirs.
The new regulations, initiated by Mayor Francesco Miccichè, are designed to minimize the city’s association with the notorious criminal organization. Founded by the Greeks in 582 BCE, Agrigento is well known for its remarkable archeological sites, including the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Valley of the Temples.
In spite of Agrigento’s amazing ancient treasures, the city has often been linked with the sordid elements of Sicilian history. In souvenir shops, tourists have been able to purchase trinkets like magnets, t-shirts, and shot glasses emblazoned with Mafia and The Godfather references—a practice that many believe perpetuates a glamorized image of the notorious criminal organization.
The new municipal ordinance outlaws the sale of any items that celebrate or reference the mob, emphasizing that such merchandise not only undermines the community’s efforts to promote a culture of legality but also humiliates a city striving to move beyond its troubled past.
The Mayor told Italian press: ‘Considering that the sale of such products in the territory of Agrigento humiliates the local community, which has been committed to spreading the culture of legality for years, I order a ban on the sale of any type of object that praises, or refers in any way and form, to the mafia and organized crime.’
Local police now have powers to inspect Agrigento’s gift shops, but it’s not yet clear how much offending businesses will be fined.
The crackdown on Mafia-themed merchandise is not limited to Agrigento itself but extends to airports and ferries throughout Sicily, where similar regulations have been put in place.
The first Cheese Museum in France opened its doors in June in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. Located in the heart of the capital on Île Saint-Louis, the new museum was designed by the company Paroles de Fromagers to celebrate cheese in all its forms, from ancestral manufacturing techniques to modern tastings.
the museum offers a complete immersion in the world of this emblematic product of French gastronomy. Visitors can discover the history of cheese, its different varieties and the traditional know-how of the regions of France. All with the help of galleries and interactive exhibitions that highlight the stages of production from milking the cows to maturing.
The museum also offers tastings during which visitors can sample rare cheeses and discover the wines with which to pair them, as well as practical workshops to learn how to make your own cheese.
The museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 7pm and the prices are 13 euros for children and 20 euros for adults. For more information, visit the official website .
And if you don’t get your fill of dairy at the Musée du Fromage, there’s a Berthillon ice cream shop on the same street.
Launched this winter, “Sense Bookstore on Khreshchatyk is special since it is located in the very heart of the capital and combines books, coffee, and a permanent event space for creating new senses. Unlike our first Sense Bookstore on Arsenalna Street, this one has three separate spaces for events, books, and coffee,” says the owner of the Sens chain, Oleksiy Erinchak.
Sense, or CEHO in Ukrainian, is situated in the very heart of the capital city. It houses more than 42,000 titles on three floors. The first floor features bestsellers, children’s literature, and a coffee shop. The ground floor is dedicated to bookshelves with fiction, non-fiction, and books in foreign languages (currently in English only), and the second floor is designed to host events.
On September 1, 1773, Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was published in London, England. Wheatley’s collection was the first volume of poetry by an African-American poet to be published. Regarded as a prodigy by her contemporaries, Wheatley was approximately twenty at the time of the book’s publication.
Born in the Senegambia region of West Africa, she was sold into slavery and transported to Boston at age seven or eight. Purchased off the slave ship by prosperous merchant John Wheatley and his wife Susanna in 1761, the young Phillis was soon copying the English alphabet on a wall in chalk.
Rather than fearing her precociousness, the Wheatleys encouraged it, allowing their daughter Mary to tutor Phillis in reading and writing. She also studied English literature, Latin, and the Bible—a strong education for any eighteenth-century woman. Wheatley’s first published poem, “On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin,” was published in Rhode Island’s Newport Mercury newspaper on December 21, 1767.
To pursue the publication of a book of her poetry, the poet sailed to London in 1773 with the Wheatleys’ son, Nathaniel. Her reputation preceded her. She met many influential people, including the Lord Mayor of London who presented her with a copy of Milton’s Paradise Lost. Her volume of poetry was published under the patronage of Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon.
Learning of Mrs. Wheatley’s ill health, Phillis Wheatley returned to Boston prior to the book’s appearance. Arriving in Boston in September 1773, she nursed her mistress until Susanna Wheatley died the following March. Wheatley continued to write. In 1776, she sent her poem “To his Excellency General Washington,” later published in the Pennsylvania Magazine, to the commander in chief of the Continental army. General Washington thanked her for the poem in a letter:
I thank you most sincerely for your polite notice of me, in the elegant Lines you enclosed; and however undeserving I may be of such encomium and panegyrick, the style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your great poetical Talents. In honour of which, and as a tribute justly due to you, I would have published the Poem, had I not been apprehensive, that, while I only meant to give the World this new instance of your genius, I might have incurred the imputation of Vanity. This and nothing else, determined me not to give it place in the public Prints.
George Washington to Phillis Wheatley, February 28, 1776. Series 3, Varick Transcripts, 1775-1785, Subseries 3H, Personal Correspondence, 1775-1783, Letterbook 1: May 31, 1775-Dec. 25, 1779. George Washington Papers. Manuscript Division.
Although she had been emancipated, Phillis Wheatley continued to live with various members of the Wheatley family until 1778. After the death of John Wheatley and his daughter, Phillis moved to her own home. She soon married John Peters, a free black Bostonian who held a variety of jobs before falling into debt. She bore the frequently absent Peters three children. Beset with financial problems, she sold her volume of Milton to help pay his debts. To support herself and her only surviving child, Phillis Wheatley worked in a Boston boarding house. Both the poet and her child died there on December 5, 1784.
via LOC
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